When it comes to health care approaches, patients in distress, pain or illness are often bombarded with suggestions about new and novel approaches to alleviate their symptoms. It’s not easy to filter the information to find the remedy for a medical condition, and health care professionals should take a holistic view when offering guidance. Integrative health care is one such approach.
What Is Integrative Health Care?
NIH’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health describes integrative health care as a coordinated combination of conventional and complementary approaches. Integrative health focuses on a holistic, patient-focused approach to health care and wellness — often considering mental, emotional, functional, spiritual, social and community factors — and treating the whole person.
“Integrative health care involves the psychosocial, the biophysical, the spiritual — all of those domains that, as nurses, we’re trained to address.”
— Dr. Theresa Granger, Clinical Assistant Professor at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work Department of Nursing
While health care providers and the internet raise awareness about ground breaking therapies, interest in integrative health care has grown. Granger and Dr. Michelle P. Zappas, also a USC Nursing faculty member, are experts in integrative health. In 2017 they gave a presentation, “The Importance of Integrative Health in Primary Care: Western Medicine Will Only Take You So Far!” at a conference of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners.
According to the CDC’s National Health Statistics Reports, between 2002 and 2012, the use of complementary health care therapies increased in all but non-Hispanic black men and women and those aged 18–44.
Go to the tabular data comparing who uses complementary medicine, by demographic.
Integrative health care is not complementary health care, and the terms should not be used interchangeably. Integrative health involves a holistic approach to therapy and includes complementary health care therapies. For example, one integrative health care approach to treating veterans with PTSD is to encourage activities that promote good nutrition, exercise, stress management, spiritual growth, health responsibility, and positive interpersonal relationships.
Complementary health care refers to the use of non-mainstream approaches together with conventional medicine. Omega-3 supplements, hatha yoga, and gentle massages are just some complementary treatments patients might find helpful to use alongside prescribed treatments.
Complementary Health Care vs. Alternative Health Care: What’s the Difference?
A third term in the mix when it comes to patient care is alternative health care, which is a non-mainstream therapy used in place of conventional care. It includes homeopathic, naturopathic and Chinese or Ayurvedic medicine, which involve the use of botanical drugs.
Complementary medicine refers to treatments that are used with standard medical treatments, like acupuncture to help with side effects of cancer treatment, according to NIH’s National Cancer Institute.
“It’s not the therapies that make something complementary versus alternative. It’s the application or use of them,” Zappas said.
A patient with rheumatoid arthritis who chooses to use essential oils in addition to traditional treatments is using a complementary health care approach, but a patient using essential oils instead of traditional medicine for therapy is using an alternative health care approach.
While complementary therapies are used in conjunction with mainstream therapies, they do not replace medical regimens for serious conditions.
Integrative health care includes complementary health care approaches.
Complementary health care approaches are used with conventional medicine.
Alternative health care is used instead of mainstream treatments.